Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1915 — BUILDING ROADS by CONVICT LABOR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BUILDING ROADS by CONVICT LABOR

SOOD roads advocates are giving increasing attention to the question of the employment of convicts in road building. Throughout the country state good roads associations are adopting resolutions favoring the adoption of the convict labor system. Good roads organisations and advocates are discussing the merits and dis--4 advantages of the plan, and many are studying the system as applied in other states. < Colorado has been using convict labor for the last seven years. So successful has it proved in this Btate that others have modeled their laws and plan of operation after those of Colorado and the governors during fheir annual conference at Colorado' Springs last August spent much time in studying at first hand the wonderful highways that Colorado has built by convict labor. Twentyfour governors made up a party for a trip of inspection over the Colorado Springs-Canon City highway and the Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean road in, Ute Pass, two of the most perfect mountain roads in the United States and two of the best examples of tho resultß of convict labor. The Colorado Springs-Canon City highway is one of the best example| of scientific road building in the state; perhaps the country. For a distance of twenty miles or more south of Colorado Springs the road winds around the foothills and mountains, practically the entire roadbed having been cut out of the hillside and In many places blasted out of solid rock. For the remaining twenty-five miles to Canon City the way is over foothills and through undulating country. Besides being a marvel in engineering, the road is one of the best scenic and picturesque in the West, passing as it does through Red Rock Canyon, Dead Man’s Canyon and many other mountain beauty spots. It culminates in the far-famed highway to the top of the Royal Gorge and the unique and spectacular Sky Line Drive, at Canon City. The road averaged eighteen feet in width and is perfectly crowned and drained. Although it offers a succession of climbs, so skillfully was the engineering work done that heavy grades have been eliminated and the motorist is confronted with only one grade as high as six per cent Ute Pass is one of the historic gateways of the mountain country and down Jts sides centuries before Columbus discovered America, the Ute Indians had worn, with soft mocassined tread, a plainly distinguishabfe trail. In building the first road across the range to freight supplies to Leadvllle, Aspen and the other mining camps, the white man followed the trail of the Indian. A few years ago the main portion of this road between Manltou and Cascade waß entirely rebuilt by convict labor. It has been pronounced a most splendid example of road building. It has a wide, well «qrowned roadbed surfaced with disintegrated granite from the mountain sides. Grades have been reduced and although the road overcomes an elevation of 1,125 feet in a distance of five miles the climb is gradual and is easily negotiated, It is over the Ute Pass road that the Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean highway enters the mountains after striking straight across the plains of central Colorado to Colorado Springs and Manitou. Thence it continues westward through South Park over Tennessee Pass down the valleys of the Eagle and'the Grand rivers to Grand Junction and the Utah line. Pueblo county also has employed convicts to advantage, and * notable pjiece of road Js the stretch just north of* Pueblo on the road to Colorado Springs. Garfield county, on the western slope, last year engaged BO convicts for a period of four years, rfnd they have. Just completed work on the Pikes Peak Qcean to Ocean highway west of Glenwood Springs and are now engaged in rebuilding the road through the'Canyon of the Grand river. Weld and Larimer counties, in northern Colorado, also have many milea'of splendid rt>ad to show for the work of convicts during the last two years. Wherever tried, the results have been satisfactory. This applies especially to the benefits.derived by the cnnyicts themselves. Under the Colorado system, the Convict Is allowed ten days off his sentence for each month df labor on the roads. This is in addition to the usual reduction for good behavior. Besides, in Colorado, the employment of convicts on the roads has been singularly successful because the .cost of building many of its mountain'roads would be almost prohibitive if ,the state were* compelled to construct them under ordinary conditions. The entire country has reaped the benefits of Colorado’s. pioneering because it has been able to open to travelers from all sections of the country some of Its Boost splendid mrniiitAin scenery; it has furthermore set the example for many of the other states in the adoption

of some system for the employment of convicts on state and county roads. In speaking of what can be accomplished in the way of road building by the use of convict labor, Thomas J. Tynan, warden of the state penitentiary under whose supervision (file work the last three years has been done, recently said: “The benefits in this or any other state from a broad and scientific system of convict road building can scarcely be estimated. Basing our figures on actual experience we are confident that we can construct in the next ten years more than' five thousand miles of the very finest roadways for less than $500,000 and this without adding anything whatever to the burden of the taxpayers. "During the period of ten years the internal revenue fund of Colorado should amount to $2,000,000. After deducting $500,000 for road construction, the remaining amount should be wisely expended In bridge building, road repairing and for similar uses. Add to this the financial assistance from the different counties, and it would enable us to construct not* less than 10,000 miles. It can be done in Colorado. Why Bhould not the same conditions apply to other states under more favorable conditions where the roads are naturally better and where cost of construction would not necessarily be so high as in our mountainous sections? “To illustrate better the great saving to the taxpayers on this class of work and its possibilities, let me quote a few figures from one of our road camps. JDuring one month we worked 35 men on the road not including the camp help. The number of days employed was 24%. Each of these 35 men rendered to the state, labor equivalent in value to $2 and $3 a day. The labor for each man cost the state exactly 25 cents- per day. Had thiß number of men been employed at the regular standard of wages of say $2.00 per day per man, the cost of wages alone would have been $1,632.50. Each day’s work thus represented a net saving of at least $1,75 per man. The total cost of all the work for the 1 month, including salaries, care of stock, feed for teams and cost of equipment was $515.15, or 47% cents per day per man. When theqp figures are considered no one can doubt for a moment the economy of building roads with convict labor. The roads are carefully and thoroughly inspected by competent engineers who testify to the completnesß and high character of the work. ‘What is the incentive for the men to create such great work?’ is a question often asked Coloradoans. It is just this: the man who is allowed to leave the prison for the road camp has practically seen the last Of prison life if he conducts himself properly; his food is better; his clothing is better; his self-respect is preserved and he is taught selfreliance and sustained application. He earns an additional ten days-a month during the time he works,- which very materially reduces his sentence. Eliminating the policy of armed guards, the men have been placed under skilled and competent overseers and guarded only by their word of hoUor not to run away. They remain faithful and loyal to thAir pledges. The success of such an honor system was instantaneous; the plan has worked out better than its originators expected. During the last three years we have had more than one thousand individual prisoners in /he convict ckmps. These men without guards—some 300 miles away from the prison—have created a national reputation for loyalty”. Less than one per cent have violated their pledges and made sue- ' .j,..

cessful escape. Communities no longer fear to have our convict camps established near themWe have made manhood as well as money by this healthy, hearty outdoor labor. We have built the prisoners up both physically and morally. Men discharged from our road camps do not have the prison pallor, the physical weakness and the hesitating, hang-dog appearance of the typical discharged convict. They are bronzed, sturdy, healthy, efficient laborers and are in demand as such. About 20 per cent of those we have sent out upon the completion of their sentence have made good. The other 20 per cent have mostly found their way back into prison elsewhere. In his last biennial report Warden Tynan had the following to say with reference to the financial side of convict road building: “Our largest item of labor performed by the convicts was, of course, the road work. The prisoners have been employed in' the construction of roads in Mesa, Fremont, Larimer, Weld, Boulder, Jefferson, El Paso and Pueblo counties. They have built 157 miles of good roadway and’ a great deal of this has been blasted out of solid rock —that in Mesa county being the most difficult and heavy work ever attempted by our men. “Owing to the fact that it was impossible to get from the various counties the cost of material, such as cement, lumber, steel, corrugated culverts, powder, tools and supplies, other thap actual labor used in road and bridge building we are enabled to give you only the labor cost to these different counties for the work of the men. This work has been done at an average cost to the different counties of 32 cents per day per man; and as this cost includes Sundays and holidays the cost of labor of these men' to the counties for the two years, or 731 days, would be $36,725.44. We have worked twenty-one state teams and the feed for these teams cost the counties S2O per month per team, which would amount to $10,088; making a total cost to the counties for labor of $46,805. The average labor cost for the 157 miles was $298.12 per mile. 9 "It lp hard to estimate the immense value of these roads for the reason that the work in Mesa county alone would have cost, with free labor, not less than $25,000 per mile, as the rock in places had to be blasted for 75 feet in order to get a proper roadbed. In this work it was necessary to drill holes 25 feet deep and to drill three depths before the roadbed was reached. So you can see the magnitude of this work. The work in Ute Pass, in El Paso county, was done through solid rock for six miles, all blasting. The work in Salt Canon and Parkdale Hill, in Fremont county and Ingres Hill, Cherokee Hill and Thompson Canon in Larimer county have been very expensive work, because of the blasting. This necessarily would have been very much more expensive had it beep dpne with free labor, and the counties would have been forced to pay big salaries for drillers, blasters, powder men, masons and cement workers. Not counting what the contractor’s profits might be and not including any skilled labor, except blacksmiths, cement workers and masons, and estimating the cost of free labor at $2 per day, by eliminating Bundays and holidays, we may count 132 men working 210. days at $2 per day which would give us a labor value Of $16i;040. We have worked an average of twenty masons and cement workers, which would have cost the counties $5 per day, and would have amounted to $61,000. We have averaged five blacksmiths, whose labor is estimated at $4 pOr day and this would have amounted to $12,220. Estimating the value of 21 teams at $2.50 per day per team for 610 days, it would have amounted to $32,025. At a low figure the, value of the labor of these men and teams would’ be worth to the counties $266,285. Add to this-a depreciation of state equipment, $2,000 and the interest on state equipment $2,000 and you can see that this labor has been worth to the different counties $270,285. The difference, between what the free labor alone would have cost .the public—namely, $270,285—and what the labor of out men actually cost them shows a labor profit of $233,479-50. However, this labor did not compete with the tree labor of the state, for the reason that the counties could not otherwise have afforded to do this work.”